Talk:St. Catherine's Monastery (Sinai)

I doubt that this is the oldest Christian monastery. Bulgarian researchers have claimed that the oldest monastery in Bulgaria and possibly in Europe is the St. Athanasius Monastery in the village of Zlatna Livada, near the town of Chirpan. It was reportedly established by St. Athanasius the Great himself in AD 344. You may read the following article (in Bulgarian): [1]. --Vladko 09:37, 26 Apr 2005 (CDT)

How wonderful! I found another mention of it here (about half-way down the page, with pictures). --magda 09:58, 26 Apr 2005 (CDT)

Burning Bush

I deleted what seemed to be stray, nonsensical words in the second paragraph. However, the entire quoted section is odd. The whole thing cannot be attributed to Egeria (as it refers to a mosaic dating from the 10th century). Plainly, the final two paragraphs are from other commentary included in the work cited. As it is, the quote is confusing. I don't have the resource at hand to correct it or to make more sense of it. Hopefully, whoever contributed it, or someone else with a copy of it, can help.

You're right, I think only the first paragraph comes from Egeria. The rest is additional description from another source, probably the John Wilkinson book. I've added a link to the complete English text of Egeria's work. The aforementioned paragraph comes from section 8. Gabriela 22:58, September 28, 2006 (CDT)

Fatimid mosque

The mosque was built originally to cater for the local berber community. However it was found that the mirab within was not pointing to Makkah, and it could not be used. They refused to destroy something that was intended for the purpose of worship, and it remains sealed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Eugene (talk • contribs) .

In Church of ?

True, the monastery is in the nation of Egypt, but it is an autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the Church of Jerusalem! Wsk 19:02, April 19, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it is (according to some), but the Church of Jerusalem is not known as the Palestinian Church or Church of Palestine, although it cares for Palestinian Christians and some of its bishops are Palestinians. In Wikipedia, they say The exact administrative status of the church within Eastern Orthodoxy is ambiguous: by some, including the church itself, [2] it is considered autocephalous, by others an autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem." citing: Ware, Kallistos (Timothy) (1964). "Part I: History". The Orthodox Church. Penguin Books. http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/history_timothy_ware_1.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-14. Under Introduction Bishop Kallistos says that Sinai is "autocephalous"; under The twentieth century, Greeks and Arabs he states that "There is some disagreement about whether the monastery should be termed an 'autocephalous' or merely an 'autonomous' Church.

Moreover, the monks at this Greek Orthodox monastery are mostly Greek or from Eastern Europe.